Refrain from resolving cases that are not urgent, DOJ head urged

Justice Secretary-designate Vitaliano Aguirre II. YUJI VINCENT GONZALES/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

While the outgoing leadership of the Department of Justice (DOJ) has the right to resolve pending cases up to June 30, incoming Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Tuesday said it would be advisable if outgoing Justice Secretary Emmanuel Caparas would refrain from resolving pending cases if there is no urgency or valid reason to do so to avoid suspicion of irregularity.

Aguirre issued the statement after anti-corruption watchdog Filipino Alliance for Transparency and Empowerment (FATE) accused the outgoing DOJ chief of meddling in the resolution of some cases in exchange for a price.

“Technically, the outgoing DOJ secretary has the right to issue resolutions resolving cases until the very end of his term on June 30. However,  to avoid suspicion of irregularity, especially in the face of accusations from various parties, it might be advisable to refrain from further resolving pending incidents if there is no urgency or valid reasons to do at this time,” Aguirre said.

“This will be done on a case to case basis. In other words, the circumstances will have to be examined,” he added.

Earlier, the group said the information they received showed Caparas supposedly instructing his subordinates—undersecretaries and state prosecutors—to stop issuing resolutions by June 3.

FATE spokesperson Jo Perez said the “re-written rulings” were being “antedated” and sold for “millions of pesos” to parties in the case, claiming that the resolutions were being sold from P5 million to P10 million and P20 million for big cases.

However, Caparas said there was no truth to the group’s claim and that he had done his work professionally in pursuance of the mandate of the justice department.

Caparas challenged FATE to put their evidence on the table.

READ: DOJ head dares transparency group: Prove claim on case meddling

“If this group wishes to put substance in their allegation, please let’s be fair about it. Ako, I’m a very fair person humaharap ako sa tao kung gusto nilang makipag-usap (I face people when they want to talk to me). Ngayon, may sinasabing hindi maganda humarap kayo, humarap kayo sa akin (Now that you are accusing me, face me). Show me what you are talking about,” Caparas said in a press briefing last Thursday,

Caparas added he had no problem and would even welcome if his successor would initiate an investigation into claims of “midnight resolutions” allegedly being issued by the department before the end of the Aquino administration on June 30.

READ: Incoming DOJ chief vows to probe ‘midnight resolutions’

Aguirre said he would look into the allegations as he echoed Caparas’ statement calling on FATE to present evidence to back up their claim. RAM/rga